---
title: ‘Dear youth,’ he said, ‘forgive me for my shameful conduct to you, a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Dear youth,’ he said, ‘forgive me for my shameful conduct to you, and, as a sign that you pardon me, accept the golden horse as a present. Who acts: emperor, you, sign, my. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Dear youth,’ he said, ‘forgive me for my shameful conduct to you, and, as a sign that you pardon me, accept the golden horse as a present.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** emperor, you, sign, my · **What happens:** say, forgive, pardon, accept, conduct · **To what, where:** me, you, golden horse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, you, sign, my), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg7277:52:76
# text = ‘Dear youth,’ he said, ‘forgive me for my shameful conduct to you, and, as a sign that you pardon me, accept the golden horse as a present.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	forgive	forgive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	shameful	shameful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	conduct	conduct	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	pardon	pardon	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
29	accept	accept	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | emperor |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **forgive** | infinitive |  | me | you |  |  | for my shameful conduct | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent i=Theme for conduct=Attribute |
| 3 | **pardon** | present | you | me |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 4 | **accept** | infinitive | a sign | the golden horse |  |  |  | as a present | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent horse=Theme as present=Attribute |
| 5 | **conduct** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom conduct «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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